Communications device with remote device identifier recognition and transmission in accordance with the recognized identifier

ABSTRACT

A communications device transmits and receives information in accordance with both facsimile and electronic mail communications protocols. The communications device recognizes a destination identifier, identifying a remote communications device as either a facsimile device or an e-mail device and transmits a document in accordance with the communications protocol utilized by the identified device. The communications device also allows the retrieval of electronic mail messages stored at a remote electronic mailbox. A user enters an electronic mail address, from which messages are desired to be retrieved, and presses a Retrieve button. The communications device initiates communication with an electronic post office corresponding to the entered electronic mail address and causes transmission of electronic mail messages stored in the specified mailbox.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 08/646,621, filed onMay 8, 1996, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,805,298, entitled Communications Devicewith Remote Device Identifier Recognition and Transmission In Accordancewith the Recognized Identifier, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S.Ser No. 08/595,911, filed on Feb. 6, 1996, now abandoned, entitled"Message Processing Machine" and assigned to the assignee of the presentapplication.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates in general to the field of electroniccommunications devices and in particular to devices which transmit andreceive data in accordance with facsimile and electronic mailtransmission protocols.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Facsimile (fax) devices are a popular mechanism for transmission ofinformation. The devices are relatively easy to use and the transmissionis rapid and cost-effective. Moreover, the paper input and output ofmost fax machines appeals to those who prefer paper copies of documentsand are not comfortable with transmitting and receiving information byway of a computer. For those more comfortable with computers, electronicmail (e-mail) is an even more rapid and cost effective method oftransmitting information. Documents which are created upon a computer(as most documents are) can be transmitted, received and reviewedwithout generation of a paper copy if compatible viewing software isavailable. The increasing use by organizations of private wide areanetworks and more significantly, the increasing accessibility of publicwide area networks (WANs) such as the Internet makes e-mail even moreuseful by allowing transmission to a much wider group of users.

To date, facsimile devices and electronic mail devices have for the mostpart been separate, with facsimile type communication being performed bya specialized fax machine and e-mail communication being performed by ageneral purpose desktop type computer. A user who wishes to transmit adocument via e-mail must have access to a desktop computer, and a userwho wishes to fax a document must use a separate fax machine. Whilegeneral purpose computers, when configured appropriately with a fax/datamodem which receives and transmits in accordance with both facsimile anddata communications protocols, can transmit and receive documents inaccordance with a fax or e-mail protocol, such operations are not alwayseasy and often require a general knowledge of the use of the computer'soperating environment.

For example, a desk-top computer which has the hardware necessary totransmit and receive e-mail and fax messages must also be loaded with aprogram which is capable of transmitting and receiving e-mail messagesand a program which is capable of transmitting and receiving faxmessages. If the desk-top computer transmits and receives e-mail and faxmessages to and from a modem coupled to the computer across a local areanetwork (LAN), such as found in many office environments, access to thenetwork must typically be obtained by entry of an appropriate user-nameand password. In other environments such as the home environment, thedesk-top computer is not coupled to a LAN and access to a network isobtained by way of a telephone connection with a commercial provider ofelectronic mail access to a private WAN or to a public WAN such as theInternet. In either environment, the user must interact with thecomputer's operating system, and the program(s) required to transmit andreceive fax and e-mail messages. In addition, if the user wishes totransmit a document which is in paper form, the document must first beconverted into a digital format via a scanner. In such a situation, theuser must also interact with software which controls operation of thescanner to generate a file containing digital data indicative of thescanned image which is in a format recognizable by the softwarecontrolling operation of the fax/modem.

As can be seen from the foregoing, such operations require a number ofsteps including obtaining a properly configured computer and interactingwith the programs on the computer to achieve the desired communication.

SUMMARY OF FEATURES AND ADVANTAGES OF THE INVENTION

It is a primary object of the present invention to provide an easy touse communications device which transmits and receives information inaccordance with both facsimile and electronic mail communicationsprotocols. In accordance with this objective, an easy to usecommunications device is described herein which recognizes a destinationidentifier, identifying a remote communications device as either afacsimile device or an e-mail device, and which transmits a document inaccordance with the communications protocol utilized by the identifieddevice. The communications device advantageously provides an easy to useinterface with a limited number of required inputs in order to transmita document, thus eliminating the need, as required by desk-topcomputers, for the user to have knowledge about the use of specificprograms and/or operating systems. A user wishing to transmit a documentplaces the paper document to be transmitted in a scanner, enters thedestination identifier, which is either a telephone number or anelectronic mail address and presses a transmit button. Thecommunications device determines whether the destination identifier is atelephone number or an electronic mail address and transmits thedocument in accordance with a communications protocol corresponding tothe identified type of device.

In accordance with a further object of the invention, the communicationsdevice allows the retrieval of electronic mail messages stored at aremote electronic mailbox. A user enters an electronic mail address,from which messages are desired to be retrieved, and presses an e-mailretrieve button. The communications device initiates communication witha post office corresponding to the entered electronic mail address andcauses transmission of electronic mail messages stored in the specifiedmailbox. The communications device advantageously allows the user toselect retrieval of all messages in the mailbox or to select retrievalof a listing of all messages in the mailbox. With either selection theretrieved information is printed for review by the user. If a listinghas been selected, the printed listing includes a unique identificationof each mail message. The user may then enter the identification of eachmessage desired to be retrieved. The communications device responds byretrieving and printing each selected message.

The communications device summarized above and described in furtherdetail below is preferably enclosed in a single housing andadvantageously provides an easy to use and flexible mechanism fortransmission of information to others. By allowing a user to select theform in which the transmitted document will be received, thecommunications device allows the communication to be tailored to thecommunication preferences of the recipient.

These and other features and advantages of the present invention may bebetter understood by considering the following detailed description ofcertain preferred embodiments of the invention. In the course of thisdescription, reference will be made to the attached drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a preferred communications devicecoupled to communicate with remote communications devices;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the principle hardware components of apreferred embodiment;

FIGS. 2(a) and 2(b) are block diagrams showing details of the keypad ofFIG. 2;

FIGS. 3 and 4 are flowcharts showing the operation of a preferredembodiment; and

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing further details of the flowchart of FIG.3.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In FIG. 1 a communications device 100 operates in accordance with theprinciples of the invention to transmit information contained in adocument 101, and also receive information, with a plurality of remotelylocated communications devices seen at 102-105. Communications device100 transmits and receives information in accordance with a facsimilecommunications protocol with facsimile devices 102-103, and transmitsand receives information in accordance with an electronic mailcommunications protocol with electronic mailboxes 104-105. As seen inFIG. 1, communications device 100 communicates in accordance with afacsimile communications protocol as defined by CCITT Group III over thePublic Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) 106. Electronic mailcommunications are performed by establishing over PSTN 106 acommunications link in the form of a Serial Line Internet Protocol(SLIP) or a Point to Point Protocol (PPP), (collectively termed"SLIP/PPP") over the PSTN 106 with Router 107 which provides aconnection to the high-speed backbone of the Internet in order totransmit and receive information between the communications device 100and the Internet. The Router typically transmits and receives electronicmail messages in accordance with the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol(SMTP) utilized by the TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/InternetProtocol) suite of protocols. As will be appreciated by those skilled inthe art, the TCP/IP group of protocols is a widely used set ofcommunications protocols. The general structure and features of theTCP/IP are discussed in "Special Edition, Using the Internet. SecondEdition," (1985, Ch. 12, by Tim Parker, available from Que® Corporation,Indianapolis, Ind. 46290). As will be understood by those skilled in theart in view of the present disclosure, the term router is used todesignate the function performed by module 107 which provides aconnection between two networks which both operate in accordance withthe same type of protocol; in this case--TCP/IP. The function(s)performed by routers 107-109 may be performed by a commercial servicewhich provides access to the Internet via a dial-up connection. RemoteMail Servers, seen at 110-111, each implement electronic mailboxes ofthe type seen at 104-105 to receive electronic mail messages.

The configuration of FIG. 1 is merely illustrative of one manner ofcoupling the communications device 100 to remote electronic mailboxes.Connections between the communications device 100 and the Internet 112may take several forms. For example, the communications device 100 maybe coupled to the Router 107 by way of a LAN, and thus bypass the PSTN106. If the PSTN 106 is employed to connect with the Router 107, theconnection may take one of several forms including dial-up lines or morepermanent connections in the form of leased lines.

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of the principle hardware components204-214 of the communications device 100. The components 204-214 arepreferably enclosed in a single housing 202. A scanner 204 receivesdocument 101 and generates digital data indicative of the informationcontained on the document 101. The scanner 204 may take the form of aScanJet 4Si from Hewlett-Packard Corporation. The ScanJet 4Si is a blackand white scanner which produces a resolution up to 300 dots per inch(dpi). Other types of scanners which produce resolutions either higheror lower than 300 dpi may also be used. For example, 200 dpi may be usedto reduce the amount of data to be transmitted, while maintainingacceptable resolution. As also seen in FIG. 2, the communications devicein certain embodiments may also contain a speaker 216 for output ofinformation and a microphone 218 for input of information.

Keyboard 206, shown in further detail in FIG. 2(a) along with display208, preferably includes a QWERTY style keypad 230 for entry ofalphabetic, numerical and punctuation characters, a 12 key telephonestyle keypad 232 for entry of numeric characters and a plurality ofadditional buttons seen at 234 and 236. Buttons 234 facilitate entry ofdestination identification information. The "Erase" button erases thelast characters cited, the "@" button and ".com" button provideshortcuts for entering "@" and ".com" characters respectively, and the"Redial" button allows the previously entered telephone number or e-mailaddress to be reused. Buttons 236 allow for entry of commands to controloperation of the device. The "Start" button clears the display 208 andallows entry of destination identification information via keypad 230.The "Send" button is depressed once the destination identificationinformation is entered, and initiates transmission as described in moredetail in FIG. 3. The "Stop" button stops current operation of thedevice. The "S/D" button toggles between standard and detailed scanningresolution.

Selection of standard resolution will cause generation of 200 dpihorizontally and 100 dpi vertically which scanning an image, andselection of detailed resolution will cause generation of a higherresolution, such as 200 dpi both horizontally and vertically, whenscanning of an image by the scanner 204. Particularly for e-mailtransmissions, higher resolutions such as 300 dpi may be used for moredetailed and accurate generation of images for transmission. The"E-Mail" button initiates retrieval of e-mail from a remote mailbox inthe manner more fully set forth in FIG. 4. The "Print" button allowsprinting of specific retrieved messages or of a retrieved list ofmessages.

The QWERTY style keypad 230 may be replaced with a single charactervoice recognition module, which receives voice input through microphone218, recognizes each alphanumeric character as it is individuallybroadcast in the form of a human voice and enters the recognizedcharacter as the next character in the display 208. The "Erase" buttonmay be used to erase an incorrectly recognized character. An example ofsuch a keyboard and display are shown in FIG. 2(b). As seen in FIG.2(b), it may be useful to retain the telephone style keypad 232 andadditional buttons 234 and 236 to facilitate entry of telephone numbersand repeat dialing. However, such buttons may be eliminated to reducecost should voice recognition alone be deemed to be an acceptable meansfor entry of destination identifiers and operational commands. The mostflexibility may be achieved by combining the voice recognition modulewith the embodiment of FIG. 2(a) to allow entry of destinationidentification information by voice or by touching of appropriatekeys/buttons.

Other types of voice recognition may also be employed to process inputs.For example, the buttons seen at 234 and 236 may be replaced, or used inconjunction with a voice recognition module which recognizes full wordspoken commands such as "start", "send", "print", "at" (for the @button) and ".com". Even more sophisticated voice recognition may beemployed to recognize full word e-mail addresses.

Display 208 may take the form of a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) whichdisplays alphanumeric characters to provide a visual indication ofcommands and destination identifications entered via keyboard 206. TheLCD 208 also provides status information of the communications devicesuch as "Connected" to indicate connection to a remote communicationsdevice, "Transmitting" to indicate transmission of information to aremote communications device, and "Disconnected" to indicate noconnection with a remote communications device. Printer 210 may take theform of a plain paper type printer such as a laser or ink jet printer.For example, the printer may take the form of a laser jet type ofprinter available from the Hewlett-Packard Corporation, Palo Alto,Calif. The printer 210 operates to print facsimile and e-mailcommunications received by the communications device. Fax/data modem 212operates in accordance with the CCITT Group III protocol to transmit andreceive facsimile type information. Fax/data modem 212 also transmitsand receives data in accordance with SMTP to transmit and receiveelectronic mail messages. Fax/data modem 212 typically communicates overa twisted-pair line which is coupled to the modem by way of an RJ-11connector. Other embodiments may make use of a modem or similar type ofdevice capable of communicating over different types of lines such ascoaxial or fiber optic cables.

Controller 214 takes the form of a microprocessor with an associatedRandom-Access Memory (RAM) for temporary storage, Read-Only Memory (ROM)for storage of control programs and Non-Volatile Random-Access Memory(NOVRAM) for storage of changeable parameters. An example of such amicroprocessor is the 80486 processor available from Intel Corporation,Santa Clara, Calif. Controller 214 is programmed to control theoperations of components 204, 206, 208, 210, 212 and 216 by receivinginputs from components 204, 206 and 218, providing output to components208, 210 and 216 and transmitting and receiving commands and data to andfrom modem 212 to control operation of the communications device.

The communications device, when coupled to a source of electrical energypreferably resets itself to a state in which either (1) a transmissionof information in either facsimile or e-mail format or (2) retrieval ofe-mail messages may be initiated. Initiation of either of thesefunctions may be performed by pressing the "Start" button and thenentering a destination identifier. Transmission of information is thenaccomplished by pressing the "Send" button and retrieval of informationis accomplished by pressing the "E-mail" button. Prior to transmissionof information, the "S/D" button may be pressed to select the resolutionat which scanning is desired. Either transmission or retrieval ofinformation may be terminated at any time by pressing the "Stop" button.

The functions performed by the communications device may be preferablyimplemented by way of a plurality of routines stored in ROM and executedby the controller 214. Such routines include for e-mail communications,a Domain Name Service (DNS) Client routine for obtaining numericalInternet Protocol (IP) addresses from an alphanumeric address entered bya user, an SMTP Mail Client routine for transmitting and receivinge-mail messages, and a TCP/IP Stack implementation for transferringinformation between the DNS and SMTP routines and a lower level physicalinterface implemented by the modem 212. For facsimile communications,image compression and decompression routines are employed to compressimages to be transmitted and to decompress received images. Fileencoding and decoding routines operate to encode and decode transmittedand received information in accordance with UUENCODE/UUDECODE and MIMEformats. A fax protocol stack handles transfer of information betweenthe physical interface implemented by the modem 212 and the higher levelencoding/decoding and compression/decompression routines. Thecommunications device also employs a print formatter routine forformatting information to be printed and a user interface routine whichdisplays information on the display 208 and accepts inputs entered viainput devices 218, 230, 232, 234 or 236.

FIG. 3 of the drawings is a flowchart showing the functions performed bythe communications device to transmit a document 101 in accordance witheither a fax or e-mail transmission protocol. A user wishing to transmita document via the communications device positions the documentappropriately in the scanner 204, presses the "Start" button, enters adestination identifier via the keyboard 206 and presses the "Send"button. If the document is to be sent to a remote fax machine then thedestination identification is in the form of a telephone number toidentify the telephone number to be dialed in order to transmit to theremote fax machine. If the document is to be sent to a remote electronicmailbox then the destination identification is in the form of anInternet electronic mail address to identify an electronic mailbox. Asis known such addresses typically take the following form:

    mailboxname@domainname

where, mailboxname identifies the user's electronic mailbox, anddomainname identifies a domain or machine associated with the user'slogin account. The user's electronic mailbox implements electronic mailtransmit, receive and storage functions to perform the functions of anelectronic post office associated with a user with the rights to themailbox identified by the mailboxname.

Upon pressing of the "Send" button, the communications device 100 at 302initiates scanning of the document 101 and reads the destinationidentifier entered by the user. At 304, the communications device parsesthe destination identifier to determine if it is in the form of atelephone number or an electronic mail address. This may be done byperforming the steps shown in FIG. 5 which implement a destinationidentifier determination routine.

As seen in FIG. 5 the routine is entered at step 502 and at step 504,the destination identifier is parsed and if an alphabetic character, oran "@" character is found in the destination identifier then it isdetermined at 506 to be an e-mail address, and the routine is exited atstep 512. Otherwise, the destination is determined at step 508 to be aphone number, and at step 510, extraneous characters in the identifiersuch as dashes, dots, parentheses, or slashes, as are commonly found intelephone numbers, are ignored in determining the telephone numberidentified by the destination identifier. The routine is then exited atstep 512. The communications device 100 may be programmed with the localarea code and country code, and if this is the case, then area codes andcountry codes corresponding to the stored local area and country codesare ignored in determining the destination identifier.

If the destination identifier is in the form of a telephone number thenthe communications device performs the functions seen at 306, 308 and310 to transmit the information contained on the document 101 inaccordance with a facsimile communications protocol to a remotefacsimile device identified by the entered destination identifier. Ifthe destination identifier is in the form of an electronic mail address,then the communications device performs the functions seen at 312, 314and 316 to transmit information contained on the document 101 inaccordance with an electronic mail protocol to a remote electronicmailbox identified by the entered destination identifier.

If at 304, the destination identifier is determined to be a telephonenumber, then at 306, the communications device dials the number. If at308 a successful connection cannot be established, then at 309 thefailure is indicated by generating and displaying at 318 an appropriatemessage on the display 208 and then returning at 311 to a mode where anew transmit or receive function may be initiated. Upon establishment ofa successful connection, the communications device proceeds to transmitat 310, the information on the document 101 in accordance with afacsimile communications protocol to the remote facsimile device. Thecommunications device then returns at 311 to a state in which it mayaccept a new document and destination identifier.

If at 304, the destination identifier is determined to be an e-mailaddress, then at 312, the communications device establishes a SLIP/PPPconnection with Router 107. If a successful connection is obtained(block 314), then at 316, the information on document 101 is transmittedin accordance with the STP to a remote mailbox identified by thedestination identifier. If at 314 a successfull connection with Router107 cannot be established then the failure is so indicated on thedisplay 208 at step 318 and the device returns at step 311 to a statewhere it can accept a new transmit or receive command. For transmission,at 316, the digitized information generated by the scanner 204 isencoded in accordance with the UUENCODE standard, or in accordance withthe Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) protocol. The UUENCODEprotocol/conversion utility operates to convert the binary data streaminto 7-bit ASCII characters for transmission over the Internet. The MIMEprotocol operates to encapsulate binary attachments into an e-mailmessage. The e-mail message is then transmitted to the remote mailbox inaccordance with SMTP. Upon transmission the communications devicereturns at 311 to a state in which it may accept a new document anddestination identifier.

FIG. 4 of the drawings is a flowchart showing the functions performed bythe communications device to retrieve e-mail stored in a remote mailbox.The functions shown in FIG. 4 and explained below may be implemented byusing the functions provided by Post Office Protocol, Version 3, (POP3). A description of the functions provided by POP 3 may be found inInternet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Request for Comments (RFC)1460-POP 3 Protocol maintained by the Internet Activities Board.

A user wishing to retrieve e-mail from a remote mailbox presses the"Start" button, enters at 402 a destination identifier via the keyboard206 to identify the remote mailbox and presses the "E-mail" key on thekeyboard. The communications device responds at 402 by reading thedestination identifier and attempting to connect to a predeterminedInternet access provider, which implements the router 107 of FIG. 1, toestablish a SLIP/PPP type connection. If at 406 a successful connectionis not established then at 408, the failure to establish a connection isindicated on the display 208 and control returns at 420 to perform a newtransmit or retrieve function. Upon establishment of a successfulSLIP/PPP connection with the Router 107, the communications devicelocates the post office numerical Internet Protocol (IP) addresscorresponding to the mailbox identified at 402 using the Domain NameSystem (DNS). If a password is required by the mailbox identified by thedestination identifier then the communications device at 414 displays amessage on the display to prompt the user to enter a password. Thepassword is transmitted to the mailbox and, if correct, then anappropriate message is transmitted by the mailbox.

Upon receipt of such a message, the communications device at 416obtains, in accordance with the POP3 Transfer Protocol, from the remotemailbox, data indicative of the e-mail messages stored in the mailboxand displays such data on the display. For example, the data may includethe number of e-mail messages stored in the mailbox and the total numberof characters contained in the e-mail messages. The data may alsoinclude additional information as explained in the description of theprinted listing below. The communications device then prompts the userto enter a number to retrieve a mail message, or to enter the character"a" to retrieve all mail messages. The user may print a listing of themessages contained in the mailbox to provide a paper copy which can thenbe referred to in selecting which messages are desired for retrieval.The printed listing of the e-mail messages may include the date of themessage, identification of the sender, identification of therecipient(s), and identification of the subject matter of the messagesuch as the information contained in the "Re:" field of many messages.

At 418, the communications device accepts the user's selection, andretrieves, in accordance with the POP3 Transfer Protocol, either theselected e-mail message or all of the e-mail messages, prints theretrieved e-mail messages on the printer 210 and prompts the user if themessage or messages should be deleted. The body of the e-mail message isretrieved, including the information in fields such as "To", "From","cc", "bc" and "RE:". Also retrieved are any attachments to the e-mailmessage so long as they are in text or TIFF (Tagged Image File Format)formats. If an e-mail message has an attachment which is not in text orTIFF then the attachment is not retrieved but the remainder of themessage is retrieved.

If the user retrieved an individual message and then at 418 chooses todelete the retrieved message, then the communications device transmits acommand to the mailbox to delete that particular message. Similarly, ifthe user retrieved in a single selection, all of the messages and thenat 418 chooses to delete all of the messages, then the communicationsdevice transmits a command to the mailbox to delete all messages storedin the mailbox. At step 422, if the user retrieved a single message atstep 418 and other messages remain in the mailbox, then thecommunications device returns to step 416 to obtain and display from themailbox a new listing of the messages in the mailbox. Otherwise, if at418 either all of the messages were retrieved or if no more messagesremain in the mailbox, in the case of individual retrieval, then thecommunications device returns at step 420 to a state where a newtransmit or retrieve operation may be initiated.

As can be seen from the foregoing description the communications deviceprovides the functions and ease of operability which allow it to be usedin a variety of locations, including office environments, homeenvironments, and public places such as airports, etc. It is to beunderstood that the specific mechanisms and techniques which have beendescribed are merely illustrative of one application of the principlesof the invention. Numerous modifications may be made to the methods andapparatus described without departing from the true spirit and scope ofthe invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A communications device comprising:a modem whichtransmits data in accordance with a facsimile transmission protocol andin accordance with an electronic mail protocol and receives data inaccordance with a facsimile receive protocol and in accordance with aelectronic mail protocol; a scanner which generates digital dataindicative of information on a printed medium which contains informationfor transmission to a remote communications device; an information entrydevice for entry of information designating a destination fortransmission of said information contained on said printed medium; and acontroller programmed to recognize said designating destination asidentifying a telephone number for causing transmission of said digitaldata in accordance with a facsimile transmission protocol to a facsimiledevice identified by said telephone number and programmed to recognizesaid designating destination as identifying an electronic mail addressfor causing transmission of said digital data in accordance with anelectronic mail transmission protocol to an electronic mailboxidentified by said electronic mail address, said controller furtherrecognizing a command requesting retrieval of a listing of electronicmail messages from a specified electronic mail address and initiatingcommunication with a remote communications device corresponding to saidspecified electronic mail address to cause transmission of a list of allmessages from the specified electronic mail address and causingtransmission of the identity of one or more messages among a receivedlisting to retrieve a requested electronic message.